Embodiments relate to a cover system and, more particularly, to a channel system for covering air conditioning line sets.
Currently, to cool a house or a commercial building, a minimum number of cooling units, such as air conditioning units or evaporative coolers (swamp coolers), may be utilized. However, the use of a minimum number of cooling units may not be economically beneficial. Depending on the placement of a thermostat within the residence and heating patterns dependent on exterior shading on the house, the cooling system may be forced to operate longer and for more frequent durations than needed. In a non-limiting example, if a thermostat is located in a hallway on a first end of the residence, and the primary room used in the residence is a family room located at a second end of the residence, the cooling system will operate for a longer time period than needed.
A more economical solution for cooling a residence or building is by providing a plurality of cooling units designated to cool a particular room or part of the residence. Such localized cooling units will each have its own individual line sets. More specifically, lines run from a condenser unit in the cooling system to a blower unit within the particular room or part of the residence. As the use of these individual cooling units increase, the need for providing covers for their line sets has also increased, to seamlessly integrate these additional line sets along the exterior of the residence or building. Additionally, pre-existing air conditioning units routinely require replacement of their individual line sets, to accommodate new types of refrigerant required by various industrial standards.
However, an issue with the conventional line set covers is that manufacturers provide them in fixed sizes, with several distinct sizes, and thus each fixed size cover is only sized to fit line sets for a particular individual cooling unit. Installers of such cooling systems must stock their vehicles with various sizes of ducts to accommodate an unknown size needed for a particular individual cooling system at an installation site. Furthermore, since these ducts also require T-shape connectors, bends, elbows, etc., various sizes of each of these cover connector elements must also be constantly stocked.